Although I had highlighted this piece in the past, I thought it was worth taking another look -- especially since Inside the Park Collectibles provides a bunch of detailed photos to look at. Featured here is an late 40's - early 50's Stanford Pottery figurine coin bank that shows a gold-toothed, cigar smoking "Bum". In fact, this piece is commonly known to collectors as the "gold-toothed" mascot coin bank of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Emblazoned on his chest is the word "Bum" -- an obvious reference to the anti-hero/mascot conceived by editorial cartoonist Willard Mullin. (Auction Link Here)
Stanford Pottery was a Sebring, Ohio company that started production in 1945 until a fire razed the business in 1961. They are notable to collectors for their corn inspired pottery products and sports related figurines.
There are eight different Baseball bank figurines known to exist. They include (from most common to rarest) Indians, Pirates, Braves, a Generic Man Face - no team association, Tigers with a man's face, the Brooklyn Bum, Tigers with the mascot head and the Philadelphia Athletics as an white elephant. BTW, football figurines also exist, but I understand that they are all generic and do not represent any specific team.
A huge drawback to these coin banks is that there is no reasonable way to pull out your coin savings. There is no exit point. Instead, those who want to cash in their coins would have to "break-the-bank" in order to retrieve them.
As I indicated above the Dodgers coin bank is rare and can sell in upwards of $400 to $800, or more. The most common bank, the Cleveland Indians, can be purchased for about $100 to $200, or so.
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